With pressure growing on Beijing to get North Korea to step back from its war-like footing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that no one country should be allowed to upset world peace and added China would work to reduce tensions over regional hotspots.

In a speech to a regional business forum with political leaders from Australia to Zambia present, Xi did not offer any concrete plans for how to deal with China's neighbour, North Korea, which has elevated regional tensions through war-like rhetoric and missile deployments in recent weeks. Nor did Xi offer concessions to other neighbours locked in fraught disputes with Beijing over outlying islands: Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

It isn't clear whether Xi was taking a swipe at North Korea or at the United States, a frequent target of Chinese criticism, when he criticized unilateral acts that threaten stability.

"The international community should advocate the vision of comprehensive security and co-operative security, so as to turn the global village into a big stage for common development rather than an arena where gladiators fight each other. And no one should be allowed to throw the region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," Xi said Sunday at the Boao Forum for Asia, a China-sponsored talk shop for the global elite.